Alice Gardiner Sennrich
Creator: Sennrich, Alice G.
Date: Between 1898 and 1900
This black and white photograph shows Alice Gardiner Sennrich, (1878-1968), photographer from Valley Falls, Kansas. The daughter of Tom Gardiner and Mattie Kirkpatrick Gardiner of Winchester, Kansas, she moved in 1880 with her family to Valley Falls where her father established the Valley Falls Register newspaper. As a young woman growing up in a small Kansas community, Alice choose an unconventional career in photography. On January 1, 1902, she purchased the C.S. Edington photography studio in Valley Falls and within a few years was making a name for herself as a Kansas photographer. In 1909, the Photographers Association of Kansas awarded her a first prize medal for her photos of children. She also received a gold medal and a prize of five dollars for her style of retouching photos. In 1915 as her business began to flourish, she married John Sennrich a carpenter and painter from Valley Falls. After their marriage, the couple remained in Valley Falls so Alice could continue to operate her business. For a number of years Alice's artistic eye captured life in a typical northeast Kansas community until she began to loose her eyesight in the 1950s. As her eyesight deteriorated, she could no longer maintain her studio and donated her equipment and props to the Kansas Historical Society. She was blind the last ten years of her life. In 1968, Alice Gardiner Sennrich passed away at the age of ninety at a nursing home in Valley Falls, Kansas.

Alice Gardiner Sennrich
Date: Between 1920s and 1940s
This black and white photograph shows Alice Gardiner Sennrich, (1878-1968), photographer from Valley Falls, Kansas. The daughter of Tom Gardiner and Mattie Kirkpatrick Gardiner of Winchester, Kansas, she moved in 1880 with her family to Valley Falls where her father established the Valley Falls Register newspaper. As a young woman growing up in a small Kansas community, Alice choose an unconventional career in photography. On January 1, 1902, she purchased the C.S. Edington photography studio in Valley Falls and within a few years was making a name for herself as a Kansas photographer. In 1909, the Photographers Association of Kansas awarded her a first prize medal for her photos of children. She also received a gold medal and a prize of five dollars for her style of retouching photos. In 1915 as her business began to flourish, she married John Sennrich a carpenter and painter from Valley Falls. After their marriage, the couple remained in Valley Falls so Alice could continue to operate her business. For a number of years Alice's artistic eye captured life in a typical northeast Kansas community until she began to loose her eyesight in the 1950s. As her eyesight deteriorated, she could no longer maintain her studio and donated her equipment and props to the Kansas Historical Society. She was blind the last ten years of her life. In 1968, Alice Gardiner Sennrich passed away at the age of ninety at a nursing home in Valley Falls, Kansas.

A rare specimen found on hill above Fort Riley, Kansas. 420 miles west of St. Louis Mo.
Creator: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882
Date: 1867
One side of a stereograph showing two unidentified men looking at a plant specimen near Fort Riley, Geary County, Kan. The men are next to Alexander Gardner's photographic outfit.

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot, Cherryvale, Kansas
Date: Between 1910 and 1917
This photograph shows an automobile in front of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot in Cherryvale, Kansas. The one-story "county-seat" style depot features a gabled roof with Santa Fe emblems at the peaks of the roof. A carriage porch is featured along the street side and an open waiting room is visible to the right. The structure still stands and is in private use.

Austin G. Carpenter
Creator: Wertz, G., proprietor of Kansas City Photograph Rooms
Austin G. Carpenter was an early resident of Allen County, Kansas Territory. He was part of a committee that reported on conditions related to the drought in 1860 and later served as a First Lieutenant, Company D, 9th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry,

Boeger's photography studio, Topeka, Kansas
Date: Between 1911 and 1924
This black and white photograph shows an interior view of Boeger's photography studio in Topeka, Kansas. Established in 1911 by Charles J. Boeger, the business was located at 707 Kansas Avenue. In the 1920s the studio moved to 821 Kansas Avenue before relocating in the 1940s to 727 Kansas Avenue.

Box camera
Creator: Eastman Kodak Company
Date: between 1897 and 1899
Eastman Kodak No. 2 Falcon box camera. Belonged to Alice G. Sennrich, a well-known professional photographer in Valley Falls, Kansas. She entered the business in 1902, purchasing the studio of C.S. Edington, and continued until about 1935. Eastman Kodak manufactured the the No. 2 Falcon from 1897 to 1899.

Camera
Creator: Vive Camera Company
Date: between 1897 and 1902
Magazine camera model Vive No. 1, made by the Vive Camera Company of Chicago, Illinois. Black leather-covered wooden frame, vertical viewfinder, and fixed stop diaphragm. Used by Alice G. Sennrich, a well-known professional photographer in Valley Falls, Kansas, from 1902 into the 1930s.

Capper Publications automatic camera, Topeka, Kansas
Date: Between 1940 and 1950
This photograph shows two men standing next to an autmatic camera at Capper Publications in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas.

Charles A. Foster
Creator: Skinner, photographer
Charles A. Foster was a delegate to the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention. He came to Kansas Territory from Massachusetts.

Charles Herman photograph collection
Creator: Herman, Charles L., 1922-2010
Date: 1960-1980
Photographs taken by Charles Herman, a long-time resident of Alma, Kansas. He was born on May 19, 1922 in Alma, Kansas and lived at 222 West 1st Street. He was a charter member of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society. His photographs were trademarked with blue sky and puffy white clouds. Herman died on December 19, 2010.

Chimney Rock, near Waynoka, Oklahoma
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
This photograph shows a horse-drawn wagon that may be the photographer's wagon. Along the rock formation an individual is seated along the upper portion of the rocks. Information provided by a patron suggests this is a photograph of Chimney Rock near Waynoka, Oklahoma. The original donor identified the photo as near Medicine Lodge, Kansas. An article in the Enid News and Eagle, March 7, 2009, notes the formation collapsed in 1973 and nothing remains.

Commercial National Bank in Alma, Kansas
Creator: Meier, Gustav H., 1865-1941
Date: Between 1908 and 1913
This is a photograph showing an interior view of the Commercial National Bank located at 226 Missouri in Alma, Kansas. The man at the teller cage is Alma banker and landscape photographer Louis Palenske and the on the right is his wife Emma Thoes Palenske.

Cowboys on their horses
Date: Between 1880 and 1900
This black and white photograph shows a group of cowboys on their horses at a unidentified location.

Davis and Raymond General Merchandise, Rico, Colorado
Date: 1880
This stereo view card, produced by Louie Palenske in 1880, shows the Davis and Raymond General Merchandise store, located on Main Street in Rico, Colorado. Palenske established his first photography business in Rico in the summer of 1880, operating from a "photography tent". In this view of Main Street from the southeast, a burro or donkey train is visible, "just unpacked" with supplies. The reverse of the card reads, "Colorado scenery, photographed by Louie Palenske, Rico, Colorado. Rico, the Queen City of Colorado, in the spring of 1879 was not known, but to-day, 1880, contains over 1500 houses and cabins, one large smelter now in operation, two saw mills, and is surrounded by the best carbonate silver mines in Colorado." Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission through the Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board.

Donald P. Richards
Date: Between 1945 and 1950
Here ten photographs document the post-war years of professional photographer Donald (Don) P. Richards. The son of James C. and Virginia Kindig Richards, Don was born on November 25, 1922 in St. Joseph, Missouri. After serving in World War II, Don worked as a photographer for the Parsons Sun, then later attended the Fred Archer School of Photography in Los Angeles, where his wife Donna was employed by the FBI. He returned to the Midwest in 1949 to direct public relations and teach photography at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In June 1951, Don joined the staff of the Kansas Industrial Development Commission as a writer and photographer for the state magazine, To the Stars. Promoted to editor soon afterward, Don was instrumental in rebranding the magazine as KANSAS!, which is published today by the Kansas Department of Commerce. In 1964, Don joined the Menninger Foundation where he was director of the information office from 1965 to 1978.

F. M. Steele's photography wagon
Creator: Steele, F. M. (Francis Marion), 1866-1936
Date: Between 1895 and 1912
View of F. M. (Francis Marion) Steele's photography wagon with a young girl on horseback in the foreground and a herd of cattle in the background.

Francis Marion Steele
Creator: Steele, F. M. (Francis Marion), 1866-1936
Date: 1900
Portrait of F. M. [Francis Marion] Steele, an early southwest Kansas photographer. He was born in Stanton, Illinois, on September 14, 1866, and died January 2, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. During 1890-1905, he traveled in southwest Kansas, Oklahoma Territory, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado photographing cattle drives, railroads, ranching, and farming operations. Steele documented a time of westward development and expansion. In Kansas, he photographed cattle on the range, round ups, ranches, harvests, settlers, towns, and events in Finney, Clark, Seward, Comanche, and Haskell Counties.

Fritz Palenske
Creator: Palenske, Louis F., 1858-1943
Date: 1885-1895
Seven studio photographs of Fritz Palenske, son of photographer Louis Palenske, in Alma, Kansas. Several of the photographs were also taken by Alma photographer Gus Meier.

F.W. von Egloffstein
Date: Between 1860 and 1870
This black and white photograph shows F.W. von Eggluffstein or Baron Fredrick Wilhelm von Egloffstein as he is sometimes referred to. A topographical artist for several Western expeditions his most accomplished pieces is the map of the Four Corners region. The map is the first to show a trail to the junction of the Green and Grand Rivers of the Colorado and the natural features in the area. In 1865, he secured the first United States patent for a photo-engraving process that used a screen. This technique would create the characteristics in which modern half-tones are made.

Gordon Parks
Date: 1968
This photograph illustrates Kansas born photographer, musician, writer and film director Gordon Parks (1912-2006) directing the 1968 film "The Learning Tree". Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks spent much of his youth with relatives in St. Paul, Minnesota where he began establishing himself capturing high fashion and social political movements including the deaths of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr.

Gus Meier photograph collection
Creator: Meier, Gustav H., 1865-1941
Date: 1890-1920
Photographs taken by Gus Meier. Several of the photographs were taken in his studio in Alma, Kansas.

Henry Worrall
Creator: Landy, J. (James)
Date: Between 1870 and 1880
This is a cabinet card photograph of musician and illustrator Henry Worrall of Topeka, Kansas. Presumably, Worrall sat for this photo in the studio of James Landy in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Worrall formerly lived. The photo was likely taken in the 1870s sometime after 1873. The back of the photograph is inscribed by Landy as follows: "Compliments of your friend J Landy."

Horse Thief Canyon, Hodgeman County, Kansas
Creator: Walker, Russell W.
Date: Between 1940 and 1949
A man holding a camera, possibly the photographer Russell W. Walker, sits on a rock in Horse Thief Canyon, near Jetmore, Hodgeman County, Kansas.

James S. Emery
Creator: Bowman, photographer,
James Stanley Emery had a law practice in Lawrence, Kansas Territory. He was associated with the New England Emigrant Aid Company and worked as a journalist for the "New York Daily Times." He was involved in numerous free state activities both in Kansas Territory and in the East.